The New(ish) GRE

Most RAs in our lab have questions about what to expect on and how to prepare for the New GRE (http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/about). Here is some helpful information we have gathered concerning the test.

General Info:

Full price: $195, scores are good for 5 years.

Check-in: finger print required

https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/register

What to expect:

Verbal Reasoning — Measures your ability to analyze and evaluate written material and synthesize information obtained from it, analyze relationships among component parts of sentences and recognize relationships among words and concepts. Featuring new types of questions, the Verbal Reasoning section measures your ability to understand what you read and how you apply your reasoning skills.

On the new GRE, there will be less focus on vocabulary out of context and more focus on “higher-level cognitive thinking” AKA critical reading.

There will no longer be analogies nor antonyms. There will be more sentence completion questions and a new type of question called sentence equivalence. The reading comprehension will have two new question types: multiple answer questions and sentence highlighting questions.

Quantitative Reasoning — Measures problem-solving ability, focusing on basic concepts of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and data analysis. With increased emphasis on data interpretation and real-life scenarios, this section has new types of questions that require you to show your quantitative reasoning ability.

Still composed of two topics (one “issue” and one “argument”) but each topic only has one prompt.

Test Structure:

Paper-based GRE® revised General Test Content and Structure

The overall testing time for the paper-based GRE® revised General Test is about three hours and 30 minutes. There are six sections with a 10-minute break following the second section.

Structure of the Paper-based Test

Measure

Number of Questions

Allotted Time

Analytical Writing
(Two sections)

Section 1: “Analyze an Issue” task

30 minutes per section

Section 2: “Analyze an Argument” task

Verbal Reasoning
(Two sections)

25 questions per section

35 minutes per section

Quantitative Reasoning
(Two sections)

25 questions per section

40 minutes per section

The Analytical Writing sections will always be first, while the other four sections may appear in any order.

Computer-based GRE® revised General Test Content and Structure

The overall testing time for the computer-based GRE® revised General Test is about three hours and 45 minutes. There are six sections with a 10-minute break following the third section. It will now adapt in difficulty on the section level rather than on the question level.

Structure of the Computer-based Test

Measure

Number of Questions

Allotted Time

Analytical Writing
(One section with two separately timed tasks)

One “Analyze an Issue” task and one “Analyze an Argument” task

30 minutes per task

Verbal Reasoning
(Two sections)

20 questions per section

30 minutes per section

Quantitative Reasoning
(Two sections)

20 questions per section

35 minutes per section

Unscored¹

Varies

Varies

Research²

Varies

Varies

Scores Reported

GRE® revised General Test (tests taken on or after August 1, 2011)

Measure

Scores Reported

Verbal Reasoning

130–170, in 1 point increments

Quantitative Reasoning

130–170, in 1 point increments

Analytical Writing

0–6, in half point increments

If no questions are answered for a specific measure (e.g., Verbal Reasoning), then you will receive a No Score (NS) for that measure. The scores are out of 340 points and are available immediately after taking the exam.

GRE® General Test (tests taken prior to August 1, 2011)

Measure

Scores Reported*

Verbal Reasoning

200–800, in 10-point increments

Quantitative Reasoning

200–800, in 10-point increments

Analytical Writing

0–6, in half-point increments

If no questions are answered for a specific measure (e.g., Verbal Reasoning), then you will receive a No Score (NS) for that measure.

*Score reports include Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning scores on the prior 200–800 scales as well as estimated Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning scores on the new 130–170 score scales.

NEW CHANGES:

The previous GRE adjusted the difficulty of each successive problem based on whether the previous one is answered correctly. The new version will allow you to skip individual questions in a section, answer the others, then come back to address the unfinished portion. The computer will then score the section and modify the difficulty of the next part accordingly.